Benjamin Netanyahu

Minister Netanyahu meets with President Obama about the security of Israel. President Obama says that Israel’s security is a primary focus of his administration and he’s committed to using the resources of the United States to help keep Israel safe.

As I’ve said repeatedly, the security of Israel is one of my top foreign policy priorities and that has expressed itself not only in words but in deeds. We have closer military intelligence cooperation than any two administrations in history. The military assistance that we provide we consider not only an important part of our obligation to the security of the state of Israel but also an important part of US security infrastructure in the region as we make sure that one of our closest allies can not only protect itself but can also work with us in deterring terrorism and other security threats.

Prime Minister Netanyahu also expresses his appreciation of the strong bond that exists between the United States and Israel.

We’re with each other in more ways than one and I want to thank you for this opportunity to strengthen our friendship which is strong and strengthen our alliance which is strong.

According to the State Department, Kerry phones to reaffirm the U.S.’s commitment to the security of Israel. Kerry and Netanyahu discussed a number of issues, including worries about reports of possible future Russian military buildup in Syria.

The secetary and the prime minister reiterated the need to continue pushing back on Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region, and he agreed to continue to have these discussions in the coming weeks. The secretary reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to Israel’s security and continued military and security relationship.

Netanyahu rejects calls by Mahmoud Abbas and opposition leader Isaac Herzog to let more Syrian refugees enter Israel, and says that a 30-kilometre fence will be constructed across the Jordan border.

We will not allow Israel to be submerged by a wave of illegal migrants and terrorist activists. Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of Syrian and African refugees… but Israel is a small country — very small — without demographic or geographic depth. That is why we must control our borders.

Netanyahu condemns the killing of Dawabsheh. He reportedly made a rare telephone call to Abbas pledging a thorough investigation and says he has ordered security forces to use all means at their disposal to bring the perpetrators to justice. Netanyahu:

The State of Israel takes a strong line against terrorism regardless of who the perpetrators are. The Government of Israel is united in its strong opposition to such deplorable and awful acts.

Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to verbally oppose the Iran Nuclear Agreement. He states that as the leader of the only Jewish state, he feels it is his duty to make sure that state remains protected and safe against current and potential future danger.

I have great respect for our intelligence services, they’re the best in the world, Israel’s, the U.S. And UK. Yet, all of three of us didn’t see for a long time the nuclear bunkers, we didn’t see the Syrian work on a nuclear reactor that was almost operational when we discovered it.

This move does not promote the peace process and distances the Palestinian leadership from returning to direct and bilateral negotiations. Israel will study the agreement and will consider its steps accordingly.

In an interview with AM 970 on The Cats Roundtable, McLaughlin says that President Obama’s role during the Israeli elections was bigger than has been reported. He noted that the effort to oust Netanyahu was led by a former Obama political operative and that V15 is linked to the Washington-based nonprofit OneVoice Movement, which reportedly received $350,000 in State Department grants.

What was not well reported in the American media is that President Obama and his allies were playing in the election to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu…There was money moving that included taxpayer U.S. dollars, through non-profit organizations. And there were various liberal groups in the United States that were raising millions to fund a campaign called V15 against Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The State Department people in the end of January, early February, expedited visas for [Israeli] Arab leaders to come to the United States to learn how to vote…There were people in the United States that were organizing them to vote in one party so they would help the left-of-center candidate, Herzog, that the Obama administration favored.

President Obama states he will re-evaluate the relationship the U.S. has with Israel in light of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement that he will never allow a two-state solution. Press Secretary:

The United States will re-evaluate our approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It has been the longstanding policy of the United States that a two-state solution is the best way to address this conflict. The president still holds that view. [Netanyahu’s statement] undermines the values of democratic ideals that have been important to our democracy and an important part of what binds the United States and Israel together.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, speaks at the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York, addressing the Islamic terror threat. The half hour speech compares ISIS, Iran and Hamas as a whole in regards to Islamic militancy being a threat to democracy and the world. Netanyahu:

Last week, many countries here rightly applauded President Obama for leading the effort to confront ISIS. And yet weeks before, some of these same countries, that now support confronting ISIS, opposed Israel for confronting Hamas. They evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree. ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed, which they both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their control. Don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive. It’s designed for one purpose and for one purpose only: to lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb.

US Congressmen Rohrbacher and Meeks visit Israel and speaks with Netanyahu about recent events where UN peacekeepers had confrontations with militant Islamists. The Prime Minister made use of the opportunity to express that the United Nations focuses too much time on bashing Israel rather than focusing attention on radical Islam groups. Netanyahu:

What we see is that al-Nusra, Hamas, Hezbollah — backed by Iran, al-Qaeda and these other terrorists groups are basically defying all international norms, breaking them whether in Lebanon, in Syria or in Gaza. I think the UN would do itself a great favor if, instead of the automatic Israel bashing, they actually turn their attention and their investigative committees against these terrorists who trample every norm on which the UN was founded.

About Israel, Rohrbacher:

…the one force for stability and one force for a long-term peace for this region. The rest of the region is awash in tyranny and injustice and gangsterism and terrorism that’s coming from the top, from these people that are running the various organizations, radical Islamic organizations.

Netanyahu tells Blitzer that the difference between Israel and Hamas is that Israel doesn’t glorify extremists, but puts them in jail. On the suspected killers of Palestinian teenager Mohammad Abu Khdeir in an apparent nationalist attack:

We don’t glorify these killers. We put – we apprehended him in three – three days after the – that tragic killing, immediately put them in custody. We’re putting them on trial. They will serve a good chunk of their lives in jail. That’s what we do with the killers. We don’t name public squares after them. We don’t glorify them.

He says that Hamas begins indoctrinating people with extremism from a young age:

We don’t educate our people, our children in suicide kindergarten camps, as happens in the Palestinian side. And you should see what Hamas is educating them to, no peace, no two-state solution, nothing, just jihad, more and more violence, more and more murder, and more and more bloodshed. This is not our way. We have – I think a society is tested not by the extreme fringes of that society, but how it takes care of them. We take care of those extreme fringes. We basically isolate them and ostracize them and punish them.

The brother of an Israel Defense Forces soldier killed in Gaza says Netanyahu must decide whether to leave Gaza and pursue diplomacy, or destroy the territory. Omar Gotlib’s Facebook account:

I ask you to take the children out of Gaza and turn to diplomacy — or just stop being afraid of the world and turn Gaza into rubble. I’m not afraid of the boycott to come. My countrymen are more important than a few opinions in the faraway, distant world

The left-wing Meretz voter, who does not support Netanyahu’s Likud, says Gaza should be taken…

…if not pleasantly, then with full force — without soldiers, only bombs weighing ton upon ton. Just don’t let the erosion and attrition continue. Stop being a politician, and be a leader. Make a decision free of outside interests, just out of concern for the pure souls that are in that accursed place, which rivals the Dead Sea as ‘The Lowest Place in the World.’

Netanhayu gives an imperative to the Obama administration over the phone with U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro:

Not to ever second guess me again

He says that he warned the U.S. ahead of time not to trust Hamas to stick to ceasefire conditions, after a three-day truce agreement breaks down within two hours as Hamas militants are said to abduct an Israel Defense Forces soldier on a tunnel operation and the IDF responds with tank shells.

Netanyahu says that destruction of Hamas tunnels will proceed regardless of the status of a ceasefire agreement. In Tel Aviv ahead of a fourth Knesset meeting to discuss the 2014 Gaza conflict:

We are determined to complete this mission with or without a ceasefire. I won’t agree to any proposal that will not enable the Israeli military to complete this important task for the sake of Israel’s security

Wikipedia user TSKAero1 replaces the biographical information on Netanyahu’s Wikipedia page with a Palestinian flag in apparent vandalism related to the 2014 Gaza conflict. Editors revert the article to a previous iteration within about 40 minutes, removing the changes.

Netanyahu tells Blitzer that Hamas has used tens of thousands of tons of concrete, which could have gone towards building other facilities for the community such as schools, into tunnels to attack Israel instead.

You know what they did with that, Wolf? They put 700 tons of concrete into each one of these terror attack tunnels to penetrate Israel. Now, we have discovered dozens of them. So you’re talking about tens of thousands of tons of concrete, instead of going for the benefit of the school, the population, is going for terrorism against Israel.

Netanyahu tells Blitzer that Hamas and Islamic Jihad call for the destruction of Israel and for the killing of Jews, rather than for legitimate political aims:

I think it – I think the international community has to – once this is put in place, we really have to undertake a program to demilitarize Gaza and to change the situation, because it’s unacceptable. What makes it unacceptable is Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These people are the worst terrorists, genocidal terrorists. They call for the destruction of Israel, and they call for the killing of every Jew wherever they can find them.

Netanyahu says that he won’t comment on the possibility of a strike by Israel on Iran’s alleged nuclear facilities. Blitzer:

Now that the U.S., the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Germany, they have agreed to a four-month extension, allowing these talks with Iran and its nuclear program to continue, does that mean a unilateral Israeli military strike potentially is off the table over the next four months?

Netanyahu:

Now, you know I never talk about – about what Israel will do or not do.

Netanyahu tells Blitzer that no deal is better than a bad deal on Iran, as the Islamic Republic he considers to be the world’s top terrorist state would seek to bypass efforts to prevent it developing weapons capabilities:

But I think what is important is that there wasn’t a bad deal, because there’s no deal. And no deal is better than a bad deal. We will see what the extension produces. I think a good deal is what was achieved with Syria. They’re under the threat of U.S. military action. And with the joint effort by President Obama and President Putin, Syria removed its chemicals and the capability to make chemical weapons. They didn’t just keep it in place, freeze it, and put it under a lock and put an inspector on it. They actually dismantled and removed.

He warns:

That’s not what Iran is holding out for. Iran wants to keep its capabilities and say, we will put a lock under and you can inspect it. But the whole idea for them is that, at a certain point, they break the lock. The inspector will even say they broke the lock. It will take him a few weeks to put together the wherewithal for a nuclear bomb. That’s a bad deal. Don’t make that deal, because if you think the Middle East is bad now, with ISIS, with Hamas, with Hezbollah, and with Iran, wait until Iran, one of the pre – the preeminent terrorist state of our time, has nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu tells Blitzer that Hamas baits Israel into killing civilians in order to create ‘telegenically dead’ victims that they can use to influence public opinion in the 2014 Gaza conflict:

What choice do we have? We have to protect ourselves. So we try to target the rocketeers. We do. And all civilian casualties are unintended by us, but intended by Hamas. They want to pile up as many civilian dead as they can, because somebody said they use – it’s gruesome. They use telegenically dead Palestinians for their cause. They want the more dead the better.

Netanyahu tells Blitzer that reoccupation of the Gaza Strip would be an ‘excessive military plan’ and that nobody in Israel’s government wants to go to that extent, but doesn’t appear to completely rule out the possibility of retaking the territory:

I support taking whatever action is necessary to stop this insane situation…Just imagine – I mean, imagine what Israel is going through. Imagine that 75 percent of the U.S. population is under rocket fire and they have to be in bomb shelters within 60 to 90 seconds. So, I’m not just talking about New York – New York, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Miami, you name it. That’s impossible. You can’t live like that. So I think we have to bring back, restore back a reasonable, sustained quiet and security. And we will take whatever action is necessary to achieve that.

When Blitzer asks if that includes possibly reoccupying Gaza:

Nobody wants to go to excessive military plans, but what is happening here is excessive.

Netanyahu says that Israel doesn’t ‘obliterate’ Palestinian civilians and has no battle with anyone other than Hamas, but that the brutality results from Hamas’ tendency to place rocket launchers near civilian targets – a tactic which he says is intentional.

People would say in the United States, as they’re telling me, obliterate the people. We don’t obliterate them. We don’t want to – we don’t have any battle with the Palestinians in Gaza.

He adds that having the right to self-defense also means being able to use it:

I appreciate the support we have received from President Obama and many world leaders for Israel’s right to self-defense. But others are saying, yes, you have the right of self-defense, as long as you don’t exercise it. What can a country do? What would you do? What would the people of the United States do if – if your cities were rocketed now, 2,000 rockets falling in American cities?

Netanyahu tells Blitzer that Israel seeks to protect its citizens using its weapons, while Hamas has no interest in protecting civilians and uses its weapons to draw fire onto the Gaza Strip:

We develop anti-missile systems to protect. We use an anti-missile system to protect our civilians. They use their civilians to protect their missiles. That’s the difference. So, against such a cynical, brutal, heartless enemy, we try to minimize civilian casualties.

Netanyahu tells Blitzer that there are two different groups of Hamas leaders, neither of whom are particularly concerned about the fate of Palestinian civilians. The military wing:

I mean, the Hamas leaders are divided into two. Those who are under – in underground bunkers in Gaza, they don’t care. Let the people there, you know, with the rocketeers and with the attack tunnels, let them die as Israel tries to surgically take them out. But they’re safe underground, the military leaders.

He says Khaled Meshaal, the leader of the political wing, understands even less what the conflict is like for people with no option of leaving Gaza:

And then they have got the political leader, this guy Khaled Meshaal, who is roaming around five-star hotel suites in the Gulf states, having the time of his life, while his people, while he’s deliberately putting his people as fodder for this horrible terrorist war that they’re conducting against us. So this has to stop. And I think many people in Gaza understand that Hamas is destroying Gaza, destroying their lives.

Netanyahu speaks on the phone with Abbas, for the first time since the abduction, asking Abbas to help bring the incident to a conclusion. Netanyahu places responsibility on Abu Mazen for helping to find the missing boys, since the kidnappers come from and escaped to Palestinian controlled territories.

The terrorists kidnapped innocent Israeli children, while we take care of in our hospitals sick Palestinian children. This is the difference between our humane policies and the murderous terrorists that attack us.

Netanyahu and Arafat sign the Wye River Agreement. The agreement is a land-for-peace deal which is signed after a 21-hour discussion between the two parties mediated by US president Bill Clinton. Jordan’s King Hussein, is also in attendance, assisting in the negotiations. Netanyahu:

The agreement benefits both sides and leaves me brimming with some confidence that Israel and the Palestinians could reach a final accord, though I guarantee you it will not be easy.

Yonatan (Yoni) Netanyahu leads a mission to free 105 Jewish hostages being held by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in Entebbe Uganda and is killed in the raid. His body is brought back to Israel for burial at Mt. Herzl. He is survived by his parents, an ex-wife and two younger brothers. Benjamin Netanyahu:

There is no moment that can compare to the intensity of shock and suffering, and we know that the wound never fully heals.

Benjamin Netanyahu is born in Tel Aviv, Israel, growing up in Jerusalem then Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Jewish historian Benzion Netanyahu, works as a professor. His mother is a stay-at-home mother. He goes to Cheltenham High School in Cheltenham, Philadelphia.

You taught me, Father, how to correctly view reality, how to understand what it contains within it and draw the necessary conclusions. It certainly wasn’t an easy thing for you, because there were always those who did not see as you did, ridiculed, laughed at or belittled your conclusions. But I believe that in this, as well, you taught me to distinguish between the important and the unimportant, and concentrate on the important.

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